Shir HaMa’alot: 15 Steps to Extending Israeli Sovereignty to Judea and Samaria

There’s been a lot of talk lately about extending Israeli sovereignty to Judea and Samaria. This talk has been long-winded, but short on practical policy ideas. In honor of Jerusalem Day, celebrating the miraculous victory in the 1967 Six-Day War, and to consolidate the integration of Judea and Samaria into the State of Israel, I offer below 15 comprehensive ascending policy steps to extending Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria.

Netanyahu offers sovereignty over Judea and Samaria – in part

PM Netanyahu recently reiterated his pledge to apply sovereignty to parts of Judea and Samaria. See also here.

In his speech to the Knesset, about the incoming government coalition he said,

It is time to apply Israeli law to the territories in Judea and Samaria. This step will not push off peace, but will bring it closer. Hundreds of thousands of settlers will not be moved from their homes.

It’s important to keep stressing ad infinitum, that applying Israeli sovereignty to Jewish towns and villages in Judea and Samaria, opens the way for the rest of Judea and Samaria to be given away to the “Palestinians,” according to the Trump Plan. So, Netanyahu plans to give away a lot of the Arab residents. Parts of Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel) will fall away, too.

But, Netanyahu hasn’t spoken about what the status of the Arabs inside those Israeli territories will be.

Angry reaction and counter-reaction

Furious over the talk about extending Israeli sovereignty to Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria, Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas declared recently:

The Palestine Liberation Organization and the State of Palestine are absolved, as of today, of all the agreements and understandings with the American and Israeli governments and of all the obligations based on these understandings and agreements, including the security ones.

MK Bezalel Smotrich (Yamina) responded to the Palestinian Authority’s announcement that it would end security coordination with Israel. He called on Defense Minister Benny Gantz:

…to order the IDF to take full security responsibility in all areas of Judea and Samaria and disarm the Palestinian Authority in order to protect the lives of Israeli citizens.

Again, good start, but still a piecemeal approach.

Earlier sovereignty plans give no detail of what to do with the Arabs

Several other plans have circulated for the last few years in Israel. These plans concern applying sovereignty to Judea and Samaria, or parts of it. But none of them go into much detail about what to do with the Arab population. None describe how to help them emigrate or prepare to live in peace with Israel and Jews.

In the light of Abbas’ declaration, I offer below, a comprehensive 15 ascending steps policy proscription. This is how to extend Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria:

The Pasko Sovereignty Plan: steps 1-5:

1. Nullify the Oslo Accords. Pass a bill in the Knesset to apply Israeli law over Judea and Samaria. That means the establishment of Jewish Political Sovereignty to areas A, B, and C, i.e. Annexation.
2. Establish total military and security control over all of Judea and Samaria. This would include the Arab cities, towns and villages, and disarm and de-militarize the Arab population.
3. Develop a Jewish Re-settlement Program. Encourage Israelis and Jews from the diaspora, to re-populate the Biblical Heartland of Israel. They would rebuild cities, towns, and villages, that were wiped out during nearly 2,000 years of foreign occupation.
4. Forcibly dismantle the Palestinian Authority.
5. Arrest and try the PA leadership and Palestinazi terrorists and activists (or eliminate them if arrest is impossible). Their encouragement and support of terrorism, i.e. crimes against the Jewish people, merit this. Do what was done with Eichmann, and as should have been done to Arafat.

Steps 6-8:

6. Introduce throughout the Arab sector in Judea and Samaria (the former PA), a comprehensive De-Palestinazification Program. America introduced a similar program into Germany after their defeat in World War II.
7. Establish an Emigration Authority and the Monetary Encouragement Act. Help encourage and fund the migration of Arabs from Judea and Samaria who choose to leave to another country.
8. For those Arabs who chose to stay, and take the citizenship path, establish a New Citizenship Council. The council will have the authority to deny citizenship to those Arabs who break the law. Such breach will of course include any form of resistance to Israeli Sovereignty. Deportation without compensation will be the lightest penalty. More grievous violations will receive the death penalty.

Steps 9-11

9. With Sovereignty comes responsibility. So Israel will establish a network of Israeli Police Stations throughout the Arab sector in Judea and Samaria, just as in the Jewish sector. The purpose will be to:
   1. Keep law and order, and:
   2. Provide security to those Arabs who choose to live peacefully under Israeli rule. I.e.: to protect them from the bullying and terror of “Palestinazi Activists” who haven’t yet been arrested, tried and convicted.
10. With the Dismantling of the Palestinian Authority, Israel, as sole Sovereign in the Area, will take control of all public services and municipal administration. Israel shall invest monies into improved infrastructure, e.g. roads, electricity, water, the sewer system, etc.
11. By taking control over the educational system in the Arab sector, Israel can introduce new pro-Israel, peaceful coexistence curricula. This includes its De-Palestinazification Program. Financial encouragement of Israeli Arab educators to work in the Arab sector of Judea and Samaria, should help introduce pro-Israel attitudes and Hebrew into the population.

Steps 12-13

12. A healthcare improvement initiative will begin. This will include financially encouraging existing Israeli Arab medical personnel to work in the Arab sector of Judea and Samaria. More contact between Israeli Arab citizens and the Arab citizens of Judea and Samaria, will help with their integration into Israel, long-term.
13. The new Arab citizens of Judea and Samaria will receive full civil rights and equality before the law with Jews. This will include civil and criminal adjudication in the Israeli court system, just as Israeli Arabs now enjoy. They also will be responsible to pay all taxes, just like other Israelis. The government will also require them to do National Service (but not army service), as do Israeli Arabs today.

Sovereignty step 14: municipal self-rule in thirty years

14. Starting in 2050 (thirty years from the time these policies take effect), and upon approval of the New Citizenship Council in coordination with the security services; municipal self-rule will begin to be progressively introduced into the Arab sector of Judea and Samaria. This will be contingent upon their cooperation with Israeli authorities and peaceful, proper and lawful behavior up until then. Cities, towns and villages that qualify, will then have the opportunity to hold democratic elections. They will then elect their own municipal administrations under the auspices of the New Citizenship Council. Those towns would now be free to collect their own tax money and fund and administer, their own municipal budgets.

Sovereignty step 15: full citizenship in three generations

15. But, as a former enemy population, they are not entitled to national self-determination within the State of Israel. Israel is the Nation-State of the Jewish People. Therefore, the Arabs of Judea and Samaria, are not entitled to vote in Knesset elections. Full citizenship, like Israeli Arabs, which includes the right to vote in national elections, will be available to them in three generations or seventy years (from the time these policies take effect), whichever is longer. This will be contingent upon their full cooperation with Israeli authorities, and good and lawful behavior until then. It will proceed with the approval of the security services and the New Citizenship Council.

One sovereignty plan to answer: what to do with the Arabs

I have presented here just one possible scenario, policies that still need fleshing out with even more detail, of what to do with the Arabs of Judea and Samaria, once Israeli sovereignty has been established there.

As statesmen put the issue on the top of the political agenda, they must think through, explain in detail and fully discuss all scenarios they present to the public, to achieve maximum public support and total success.

This generation’s major challenge is, how the Jewish people will achieve full integration of Judea and Samaria (the Biblical Heartland), into the modern State of Israel.

© 2020/5780 Pasko

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